


Lessons from The Khaleesi

by lady_abaniko (orphan_account)



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Flashbacks, Gen, Introspection, Post-Season/Series 08 Finale, Queen in the North
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 00:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19073380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/lady_abaniko
Summary: And as she continued speaking and people were still listening, she remembered why these people were looking up to her. The crown. The throne. The title. The independence. The responsibility. Future of the North. This was what the North must remember. This was what she must remember.And when she ended and the people cheered, she could not help but recall the cheers and applauses the Dothraki and Unsullied respond to Daenerys whenever she speak to them. This was the first time Sansa spoke to her subjects in such a crowd. Thus, she wondered and was in awe in what could have made those people followed Daenerys all the way from Essos to Westeros – what made them stay. What future did the Mother of Dragons showed to them?





	Lessons from The Khaleesi

i.

As the people in the Throne Hall at Winterfell shouted with joy, “All hail, the Queen in the North!” – she can’t help but remember the queens that she had personally known, especially of one silver-haired queen who had graced her presence in this place. As Sansa Stark, First of Her Name, gazed on all the Northmen who had praised her name and all, she can’t help but remember to think of the woman who had made them all alive. Surely, it was not just the Mother of Dragons who was able to won the war. There was Bran who had made himself a bait for the Night King. There was Jon who distracted Viserion from them. There was Theon who defended her brother. There was the Red Woman who had lit up the weapons and the racks which bid them time. There was Lady Lyanna who slew a giant. There was her sister, Arya, who killed the Night King and ended the army of the dead. But it was the alliance with the Dragon Queen that gave them a chance – and to be honest, a confidence to fight. Remembering the other heroes who were on the Great War but had fallen and her loved ones who were not with her coronation made her sad, of which Sansa, briskly shook off by addressing her people.

She nodded to them – and the hall was in silence. All eyes were on her. All ears were on her. Not as a high-born prisoner in King’s Landing. Not as a Lady of Winterfell and Warden of the North. For once, people wanted to listen to her not because of any other name but because of hers. Or was it really hers?

She had practiced these lines before – but as she stood up, she could not help but remember the people who stood up there before her. Of her father, Ned Stark, as Warden of the North. Of her brothers, Robb and Jon, as Kings in the North. Of Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi and whatever titles that woman was carrying. Will this be different? Will she be different? Yes. It is different. It will be different.

She spoke of words not that she had practiced – words of promises and victories, of a greater tomorrow and a stronger North. Instead, she spoke what the North was too proud to voice off – their grief, their loss, their negligence, their pride – and of the lessons they could learn from them. Yes, the North gained their independence from the Six Kingdoms, but she had learnt a great deal from her brother Jon, to make alliances even from the least people they expected of. The North will heal on its own, but what aid they can give to the Six Kingdoms, they shall give.

And as she continued speaking and people were still listening, she remembered why these people were looking up to her. The crown. The throne. The title. The independence. The responsibility. Future of the North. This was what the North must remember. This was what she must remember.

And when she ended and the people cheered, she could not help but recall the cheers and applauses the Dothraki and Unsullied respond to Daenerys whenever she speak to them. This was the first time Sansa spoke to her subjects in such a crowd. Thus, she wondered and was in awe in what could have made those people followed Daenerys all the way from Essos to Westeros – what made them stay. What future did the Mother of Dragons showed to them?

 

 

ii.

_What about the North?_

When she asked those words to Daenerys Targaryen, she meant no disrespect. All the more it was a sign of respect Sansa could not give to rulers she had talked with before. A spoken of disagreement means she could trust that person she was talking to not to betray her. A spoken of disagreement meant she could fight with that person fair and square – and not to rely on schemes and whispers that could drag down anybody unaware. Agree to disagree – this was Sansa Stark’s offering of respect. However, the Mother of Dragons was not prone on people disagreeing with her.

To this, Sansa questioned the strength the Khaleesi’s rule in Westoros. If the Mother of Dragons could not take it when people spoke to her directly in disagreement, how much more will the people in King’s Landing, or the other Houses who lie their way and does their rebellions or disobedience subtly. She had seen the people from Essos spoke to Daenerys – not as a queen but as a god. But how can she rule in such a faithless land? Of which Old Gods and the New were spoken less of a prayer but of a lie.

_What about the North?_

What was Sansa expecting for the Daenerys to answer? That the North will have its independence. That Jon continue to be the King in the North. That alliance will need be not joint by Jon and Daenery’s marriage. That the Northmen will go back after they have aided her in conquering Westeros. That Daenerys will leave the North alone and stay on the South only. Oh how she wished that Daenerys would have voice those answers. But alas, all of them were all shut in the daydreams of Sansa.

To Daenerys, the Westeros was her inheritance – not passed down to her father Aerys II but from Aegon and his sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, themselves. It was a birthright passed down from all the Targaryen before her. But Daenerys refused to remember, long ago, when the blood of Valyria have not landed, that the lands of Westeros was not ruled by Targaryens but of different kingdoms and kings – and such history was still on their days. If it not, why would anyone sitting in the iron throne be called “Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms”. Seven Kingdoms not One.

_What about the North?_

What of the Starks? Sansa Stark laughed when she thought of Daenerys inheriting Westeros all the way back from Aegon the Conqueror, but now Sansa understood – understood why Daenerys chose to cling unto that. She was the last of her line, who really understood what it would entail to continue. Daenerys, as a Targaryen, was alone and lonely. Sansa, though her siblings were still alive and well, she knew that the possibility of them growing together was dim. She would love for them to be with them again, but if that meant holding back to what they would want to do, being caged on what they don’t want to become, she would choose to not be with them. Let her alone carry this burden. Let her alone carry what would entail to be a Stark in Winterfell. And if only Sansa could turn back time, back to where the Daenerys was still in Winterfell, Sansa would look past their differences and forge a friendship of two female monarchs – just like what Daenerys offered to her. They were indeed similar. They could have shared strengths. But alas, time cannot be moved backward.

But just like Daenerys learning from her history, Sansa learnt of hers – of how the North was an independent kingdom from Bran the Builder, and of a how a young girl, last of her line, grown to a woman rose and persevered to claim what her family won.


End file.
